Ari Aster, I'm sure you're a genius and I'm sure you had the right intentions, but NO NO NO NO NO PLEASE NO.
Please note that this review contains spoilers.
Right, so I've to say, I love myself some psychological horror. And after hearing how lauded this was and being invited to a movie night to view this, I was pretty excited to see what al the hype about - after all, culty horror sounds very appealing to me after previously having loved films such as Like Minds. And I'm not usually squeamish or anything (David Lynch movies have left me desensitised to all that). But this left me having to keep it together in front of 4 other people whilst feeling absolutely sickened to my core for two and a half hours.
Jesus, how did I managed to sit through all of this? Listen, as I mentioned, I really don't have a problem with gore and sex, but only when it's genuinely shocking and effective. Here, I feel like it was all thrown in for pure shock horror, with the film alternating between the most boring and drawn out moments and just surface level shock value. I feel like this film almost adds to the long tradition of Pagan practises being viewed as violent and horrific. I literally googled it and almost everything is made up, with actual midsommar celebrations being peaceful rituals of life and birth.
I get that the entire movie is about Dani's grief and the way that she can't think clearly, but I don't really think that's shown very well. Despite being the entire trigger for the movie, it's quickly cast into the background in favour of sex, orgies and mutilation. The cinematography is very beautiful and jarring, but I think that it very much distracts from everything at times. Same for the gratuitous gore. I think that it's much more effective when certain things are shown off camera, but instead, here, you're just so disgusted by the caved in faces and skinned bodies that you can't quite focus on much else.
This movie is very widely discussed in film circles, and a lot of people mentioned a few key scenes (the burning of the temple, the dancing, the bear), and of course I was expecting them when going in, but hat I didn't realise was that that was literally only going to be the main stuff. Everything in between was just fluff. And, of course, we have the cliché of everyone getting killed off one by one. Honestly, I kind of knew that everyone except Dani was going to die, but the detailed disgusting imagery of it all I was better off NOT seeing. Like, okay, I get it, paganism is disgusting to Western audiences, WE GET THE POINT.
I- I just- this was so horrifically horrific that I honestly don't ever want to watch it again. What I thought was going to be a creeping psychological thriller just ended up a nonsensical and disgusting and indulgent face-level shock-horror mess. I would rather break my own arm than watch this again.
Just don't. Trust me, DON'T.
-Sasha.
Please note that this review contains spoilers.
Right, so I've to say, I love myself some psychological horror. And after hearing how lauded this was and being invited to a movie night to view this, I was pretty excited to see what al the hype about - after all, culty horror sounds very appealing to me after previously having loved films such as Like Minds. And I'm not usually squeamish or anything (David Lynch movies have left me desensitised to all that). But this left me having to keep it together in front of 4 other people whilst feeling absolutely sickened to my core for two and a half hours.
Jesus, how did I managed to sit through all of this? Listen, as I mentioned, I really don't have a problem with gore and sex, but only when it's genuinely shocking and effective. Here, I feel like it was all thrown in for pure shock horror, with the film alternating between the most boring and drawn out moments and just surface level shock value. I feel like this film almost adds to the long tradition of Pagan practises being viewed as violent and horrific. I literally googled it and almost everything is made up, with actual midsommar celebrations being peaceful rituals of life and birth.
I get that the entire movie is about Dani's grief and the way that she can't think clearly, but I don't really think that's shown very well. Despite being the entire trigger for the movie, it's quickly cast into the background in favour of sex, orgies and mutilation. The cinematography is very beautiful and jarring, but I think that it very much distracts from everything at times. Same for the gratuitous gore. I think that it's much more effective when certain things are shown off camera, but instead, here, you're just so disgusted by the caved in faces and skinned bodies that you can't quite focus on much else.
This movie is very widely discussed in film circles, and a lot of people mentioned a few key scenes (the burning of the temple, the dancing, the bear), and of course I was expecting them when going in, but hat I didn't realise was that that was literally only going to be the main stuff. Everything in between was just fluff. And, of course, we have the cliché of everyone getting killed off one by one. Honestly, I kind of knew that everyone except Dani was going to die, but the detailed disgusting imagery of it all I was better off NOT seeing. Like, okay, I get it, paganism is disgusting to Western audiences, WE GET THE POINT.
I- I just- this was so horrifically horrific that I honestly don't ever want to watch it again. What I thought was going to be a creeping psychological thriller just ended up a nonsensical and disgusting and indulgent face-level shock-horror mess. I would rather break my own arm than watch this again.
Just don't. Trust me, DON'T.
-Sasha.